The present invention relates to a built-in refrigerator, the door of which, when assembled, is enclosed on several sides by a fixed frame. Refrigerators of this type, in which brackets of the frame are fastened in each instance to side walls or a ceiling of the carcass and extend outwards to front edges of the walls of a unit recess surrounding the refrigerator, in order to conceal a gap between the refrigerator and the walls of the recess, are marketed in particular in America.
The fixed frame surrounding the door restricts the freedom of movement of the door, so that the use of multi-joint hinges is generally necessary in order to control an opening movement of the door originating from the frame, without the door striking the frame. If, when opening the door, a gap appears between said door and the frame, said gap being wide enough to insert a finger, there is a risk of injury to fingers when closing the door.
To eliminate this risk of injury, the unexamined German application DE 10 2005 057 133 A1 proposes fastening a flexible covering element to the device door, which engages into a gap in a moveable fashion between opposite side walls of the carcass and the unit recess accommodating the device. This covering element blocks the gap between the device door and the adjacent furniture front when the device door is open and thus eliminates the risk of trapped fingers. The use of such a covering element is however excluded if a fixed frame is fastened to the side wall of the domestic appliance as described in the introduction, since in accordance with DE 10 2005 057 133 A1 this frame occupies the space required for the covering element.